ODT

Todays Otago Daily Times (4th August) has an article in it's Travel Supplement about the Observatory at Lake Tekapo. This was the trip that made Finn a very happy boy last week. Observatory, hot pools and ice skating. See www.odt.co.nz and in the word search in the top left hand corner, put 'a tranquil trip to Lake Tekapo'.

While I remember another earthquake story. A local man was killed in a freak accident when he intervened in a fight at his pub, between two women. One of the women hit him and he was dead before he hit the ground. He no longer lived in Wanaka, but apparently he had about 20 send off's throughout the district. He was only 42 and well-respected. His friend was telling me that after all the send-offs, he lay in an open casket in Haast, about 1 and a half hours up the road, on the West Coast. They were just about to put the lid on the casket when the earth started trembling. She said that everyone in the room nearly ran away, as they thought he was coming back to life and it took (like the rest of us) a moment or two to realise what was happening. She said that he got the last laugh.